Sweden Scam & Fraud Statistics
Swedish police recorded 232 862 fraud offences in 2025, while 6.6 per cent of adults told Brå's national survey they had been hit by sales fraud during 2024.
Last reviewed: 20 July 2026
This page collects Sweden's official fraud numbers, all of which are published by Brå, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet). Brå runs two separate measures. The first is the count of fraud offences reported to the police, which reached 232 862 in 2025, an increase of 2 532 offences (+1 per cent) on 2024. The second is the Swedish Crime Survey (Nationella trygghetsundersökningen), in which 6.6 per cent of people aged 16 to 84 said they had been exposed to sales fraud during 2024.\n\nNeither measure is a loss ledger. Brå publishes case counts and victimisation rates rather than a national total of money stolen, so there is no headline kronor figure on this page; any SEK totals you see quoted elsewhere come from banks or insurers, not from Brå. Willingness to report also varies sharply between fraud types, and Brå notes that fraud is a typical serial offence in which one offender can defraud many people in a short period, so a single case can move an entire category a long way from one year to the next. The survey percentages are self-reported answers from a sample of the population, not verified incidents.
Key figures
232 862 reported fraud offences, an increase of 2 532 offences (+1 %) on 2024
Fraud offences reported to police in 2025
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
103 216 reported offences
Card fraud — the largest reported fraud category
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
50 571 reported offences
Fraud by social manipulation (social engineering) reported in 2025
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
21 377 reported offences
Advertisement fraud (annonsbedrägeri) reported in 2025
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
3 952 reported offences
Investment fraud reported in 2025 — few reports, large sums lost
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
1 572 reported offences
Romance fraud reported in 2025
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Anmälda brott (2025)
6.6 per cent, down from 6.9 per cent in 2023
Self-reported exposure to sales fraud, population aged 16–84
Source: Brå — Swedish Crime Survey 2025 (2024)
4.3 per cent, the same level as 2023
Self-reported exposure to card and credit fraud, population aged 16–84
Source: Brå (Brottsförebyggande rådet) — Bedrägeri, Nationella trygghetsundersökningen (2024)
Key takeaways
- Card fraud dominates the Swedish figures: 103 216 of the 232 862 fraud offences reported in 2025 were card fraud.
- The growth in 2025 came from card fraud without a physical card, up 8 867 offences (+10 per cent), while advertisement fraud and card fraud with a physical card both fell.
- Investment fraud generates relatively few reports — 3 952 in 2025 — but Brå notes that large sums are lost in this category despite the low report count.
- Self-reported exposure to sales fraud dipped for the first time in years, from 6.9 per cent in 2023 to 6.6 per cent in 2024, after a clear upward trend between 2016 and 2023.
- Worry is still climbing even where victimisation is not: the share of people worried about being subjected to fraud on the internet rose from 32 per cent in 2022 to 39 per cent in 2025.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common type of fraud reported to police in Sweden?
Card fraud is by a wide margin the largest category, with 103 216 offences reported in 2025 out of 232 862 fraud offences in total. Fraud by social manipulation, which covers romance, investment and authority-impersonation scams, accounted for 50 571 offences. Other fraud came to 22 057 and advertisement fraud to 21 377. Identity fraud recorded 7 641 offences and invoice fraud 10 180, according to Brå's breakdown of reported offences for 2025.
Is fraud in Sweden rising or falling?
Both, depending on the period. Reported fraud offences rose to 260 260 in 2018, fell to 195 902 in 2021, climbed again to 238 371 in 2023, and stood at 232 862 in 2025 — 14 per cent more than in 2016. Survey data tells a slightly different story: self-reported exposure to sales fraud eased from 6.9 per cent in 2023 to 6.6 per cent in 2024, and card and credit fraud held steady at 4.3 per cent.